I'm Never Going Back To My Old School

The 50 year reunion of the Depew High School class of 1968 is rapidly approaching. I will not be in attendance. While I do visit my Mom once a year, that is about the sum total of my interest in returning to the place I grew up. I have few fond memories of high school, but a lot of latent trauma from being harassed by the jock and moron contingent. I moved away to get away, and the thought of somehow putting on a happy face with people I hardly knew or were never friends with does not enthuse me in the least bit. I no longer have the energy or interest in that sort of subterfuge.

I don't think so.

Someone recently posted a picture on the reunion Facebook page of a hallway of lockers with the words, "You're gonna miss this. You're gonna want this back. You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast." Right. I really miss getting choked every morning by the cement headed jock sitting behind me in homeroom. I certainly miss the terror of the hallway outside of the drafting classroom where cretins meted out corporal punishment at random. I have a soft spot in my heart for the social order where football players and cheerleaders were our demigods to be worshipped and adored. No, high school sucked for a lot of us. It was an uncomfortable time at an awkward age where many of us struggled to find our role in the bad movie known as high school. The plight of the high school nerd is the recurring theme in many movies and TV shows. There is usually a revenge component where the nerds get the last laugh. My revenge was moving on and never looking back.

Depew High yearbook photography staff. One of the few things I really enjoyed during my senior year. Me on the far left.

Everytime I do return home I imagine what it would be like if I hadn't left or had I returned to live there. It creeps me out. I've had a rich life that I don't think I could ever have experienced had I not broken the surly bonds of small town life in the suburbs. I don't begrudge or wish to denigrate those who find these sorts of gatherings as milestones in their lives. They obviously experienced high school from a much different perspective than I did, or perhaps they have amnesia. I know there's a morbid curiosity factor in reunions, but I have no interest in seeing aged versions of people I probably don't remember and won't recognize.

I'm skipping class on this one.

Being the class clown had its advantages. Humor got me through a lot of miserable times.